Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

Henderson Thinks He Can Help Phillies Hitters

I had a chance to speak today to new Phillies hitting coach Steve Henderson, who is pairing up with Wally Joyner to try to turn around the Phillies offense.

It won’t be easy.

I hadn’t realized until looking it up today — or maybe I just forgot — that the Phillies’ 684 runs this season (4.22 runs per game) were its fewest since 1997 (668). Also, the team’s .255 average ranked 18th over the previous 20 seasons. Its .317 on-base percentage ranked 20th and its .400 slugging percentage ranked 14th.

Now, it should be mentioned offensive numbers in baseball are down everywhere. Teams averaged just 4.32 runs per game this season, which ranked 19th over the past 20 seasons. But like Charlie Manuel said last season in the dugout at Marlins Park, just because offensive is down everywhere it doesn’t mean the Phillies should accept mediocrity.

The Phillies ranked just eighth in the National League in scoring this season, seventh in batting average, ninth in on-base percentage and seventh in slugging percentage. It’s not awful, but the Phillies are trying to win a World Series. It’s simply not good enough — remember the 2010 and 2011 postseasons — especially with concerns about Roy Halladay‘s ability to bounce back from a bad season. The Phillies can’t just expect the pitching staff to carry them anymore.

This sounds like all the same junk we heard last off-season. These guys are in their 30s and have long-established habits (some of which got them to the big leagues) that will not be changed.
Hiring a new hitting coach (or two) is a nice PR move and makes it appear that they are addressing a problem, but what will it accomplish?

And Greg Gross thought he could help. And Milt Thompson thought so too. Sorry folks, these Philly old dog batters are incapable of learning new tricks. Unless Steve and Wally begin to use a cattle prod to reinforce bad habits, they will continue.

Heard an interview a couple of years ago, I think it was with Gross, addressing the hitting problems. He said that the coaches worked with the players, all the time. But some didn’t take their advice. Thought they “knew better”, since their hitting stances, etc.got them into the Bigs. The only players who would take advice, were Chase and Chooch. I believe it.

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